Just before half term some members of Year 6 went to see a performance of ‘Heaven Eyes’ at the People’s Theatre. The play was adapted from a book by David Almond which focuses on a journey and it is set on and around the River Tyne.

Following the performance and after a series of workshops, the pupils submitted a piece of writing with the title ‘The Journey’  into a short story writing competition. Two of our talented pupils are prize winners in the Aged 9-11 age group and they are Samaha and Alice.

On Friday 16th June, some Year 6 students  went to a basketball competition in Northumbria University where the Newcastle Eagles play.

They left at 9.15 and travelled by coach with Gosforth Central. When they got in, there were schools from all over Newcastle. GEMS sat in the back row and listened to the rules that were being announced. They were split into Gosforth East A and Gosforth East B teams and the matches began.

On Wednesday 12th of July 2 year 8s and 1 year 7, Isaac, Katie, Sonny and a girl from the Royal Grammar School called Hannah all got  the opportunity to go to London to take part in a tennis competition and then to visit Wimbledon. They had been chosen by their tennis coach and it was part of the Premier League 4 Sport scheme which gives opportunities to young people aged 14-25years ( our pupils had done very well to be chosen since none of them were 14 yet) They travelled down late morning on the Wednesday and went straight to their hotel in Richmond. The next day, they got up nice and early, took their breakfast, got in the taxi  and headed to their tennis tournament. Newcastle were the first to arrive, so they made themselves at home!

The children, part of bike club, went to Kielder Reservoir. We started off very cool and relaxed but by the end of the day we were the opposite (sweaty and tired!).

When we got there we got off the mini bus and got our bikes off the trailer. We waited for bike tyres to be pumped up whilst we went to the toilet or had a quick snack. Next we took a quick but artistic photograph of everyone together on their bikes ready to go. Restless with excitement, we set off.

One week before the summer fair the school had a non-uniform day on the 23rd of June but instead of bringing in money the Year 5s and 6s had to bring in chocolate and year 7s and 8s had to bring in a bottle. All of these contributions were going to raffles and tombolas at the annual school fair. Some of the great stalls on the day were: Sticky Surprise by 5SL, Tin Can Alley by 6NS, Summer Selfies by 6NG, Nail Bar by 7HC and a lemonade stand.

On ‘Daft Day’, we did lots of interesting activities, one of them was dressing in non-uniform but with a twist...we had to dress daft! All at GEMS became VERY daft on ‘Daft Day because of the things that we were wearing (the daft side to everyone’s personality was allowed to break free and some people’s daft side was ridiculously daft! Even though the majority of the children made a fantastic effort, some children had not quite transformed into ‘Dafties’ so extra clothing accessories were provided and soon ‘Daftness’ spread across the entire school. Everybody looked very funny, especially the teachers. Mr Stout dressed to impress but made an incredibly unattractive lady.